And now...the run....

[User395221]

Woohoo, chicken party! Good girls.

 

[User395221]

Thank you!! Seems like a long commute.

Oh, I wouldn't let you leave LOL (sorry, don't mean to sound like the main character in Misery, it's just I have such trouble making decisions as to how to go about things, let alone getting on and doing them, I'd love to have somebody who knows how to do things so well on my "team". )

 

[TerryH]

Have the birds been out in their 'yard' yet?

They have not. I have a stack of landscape timbers inside the yard right by the 4' chain link fence that Cheryl hasn't allowed me to do anything with yet. Stupid heart attack anyway.

I figure the stack of timbers was just inviting them to go over that fence so no access yet.

 

[Kaylin]

Well goodness. Glad to hear you didn't ignore it but yes, the treatment can seem worse at times. Take it a little easy on yourself but it's good that you haven't shut down everything.

 

[Birdydeb]

So glad to hear you caught things in time. I know the meds and taking it easy really rubs against the grain but look at it this way: the better you follow instructions to take it easy and take care of yourself the quicker you will be able to resume things. That's how I deal with it when I have to take it easy. Those timbers will be waiting I am sure.

 

[TerryH]

OK, well, I'm a poor listener. I actually had Cheryl's approval to do a little something today...sort of. I do have a nicely air-conditioned shop to work in and it took me forever to get a super simple project done but I finally did get it done.

I made a little something for the chickens today. I had a 4x4 left from the run that was pretty twisted so I found a good use for it. I made a chicken trapeze/spiraling staircase/roosting sort of a thing. I ripped some left over 2x6's in half and screwed them around the 4x4. Couple of minutes with the post hole diggers netted me a hole for the bottom. I screwed the top to one of the roof rafters. Turned out pretty cool.

First one to the top?? Laverne of course. So funny to watch them puzzle it out.

 

[TerryH]

Question: We are new to the Pacific Northwest and I'm wondering about rainy climates - what do you suggest I do so that the smaller run near the coop will stay dry enough for the chickens to use it during the rainy days? Our coop has a small run that actually attaches to the house, but we have not built the large run (as our chicks are a week old).  We do have designs for it.   

I want to use construction/river sand at the bottom of the small coop run so that the it stays as dry as possible on rainy days and drains well.  I am building the coop on higher ground in the yard, but it still rains here for short AND long periods of time.  There will be a roof on the top covering all sections of the enclosure, is that along with the sand base enough?

I don't have any experience with sand in the run. I would think it would be a necessity to cover the run in your climate. You will likely want much more roof overhang than I have as well.

We will be doing deep litter beginning with a load of wood chips from a local tree trimmer but right our run is just bare earth with a bit of grass. It's been very rainy here for the last month or so and the run has been damp but not muddy at all. I had debated about leaving part of the run uncovered but I'm certain now that we did the right thing by covering it all.

 

[aart]

Looks fantastic Terry!!

 

[Molpet]

very impressive... you do not do things half way, that's for sure.. but why not 1/2 HC all the way up instead of chicken wire? you must not have weasels/mink/ etc

 

[TerryH]

Looks fantastic Terry!!

Thank you!! I'm pretty pleased with it so far. Like most of my projects, it's over built, over budget and over time.